Radio program New Tech City from WNYC interviewed Mike Rosenwald on his research into the effects of reading from a screen as opposed to print. Article and audio from the interview available here: Neuroscience, in fact, has revealed that humans use different parts of the brain when reading from a piece of paper or from … Continue reading Your brain on Kindle; 21st Century media literacy; how Disney shapes youth identity
Tag: mediaecology
Political Economy in Mumford’s “Technics & Civilization”
I've written about the media ecology tradition, attended the Media Ecology Association's conferences and had an article published in their journal, but up to now Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media and Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death are the only primary texts associated with the tradition that I've read. To broaden my knowledge of the tradition … Continue reading Political Economy in Mumford’s “Technics & Civilization”
Manifesto for a Ludic Century, ludonarrative dissonance in GTA, games and mindf*cks, and more
Kotaku recently posted a "manifesto" by game designer Eric Zimmerman declaring that the 21st century will be defined by games: Systems, play, design: these are not just aspects of the Ludic Century, they are also elements of gaming literacy. Literacy is about creating and understanding meaning, which allows people to write (create) and read (understand). … Continue reading Manifesto for a Ludic Century, ludonarrative dissonance in GTA, games and mindf*cks, and more
Rushkoff on Manning verdict, Chomsky/Žižek on NSA leaks, looking for McLuhan in Afghanistan
In an op-ed for CNN, Douglas Rushkoff examines what lessons the Bradley Manning verdict offers in the digital age: We are just beginning to learn what makes a free people secure in a digital age. It really is different. The Cold War was an era of paper records, locked vaults and state secrets, for which … Continue reading Rushkoff on Manning verdict, Chomsky/Žižek on NSA leaks, looking for McLuhan in Afghanistan
Zimmerman media coverage, remediation in Game of Thrones, Scorcese on reading cinema, and much more
William Saletan at Slate shows how media coverage has misrepresented Juror B29's comments on the Zimmerman trial verdict:The reports are based on an ABC News interview with Juror B29, the sole nonwhite juror. She has identified herself only by her first name, Maddy. She’s been framed as the woman who was bullied out of voting … Continue reading Zimmerman media coverage, remediation in Game of Thrones, Scorcese on reading cinema, and much more
Next-gen gaming with Oculus Rift, McLuhan on surveillance state, Rushkoff on viral media
Brian Phillips at Grantland thinks spy movies present a fantasy of tourism: The spy is the ideal tourist because he represents an inner self perfectly contained within an outer self that is adapted to any possible location or circumstance. Travel can broaden him by the width of a new sexual conquest, but for the most … Continue reading Next-gen gaming with Oculus Rift, McLuhan on surveillance state, Rushkoff on viral media
End of 2012 mega blow-out post
"General Semantics and media theory": video of a 20-minute presentation by Thom Gencarelli from this year's IGS symposium. "Game or be gamed: Douglas Rushkoff on prototyping democracy through play" "Those levels of interactivity, for me, recapitulated the levels of participation that we as a society have had since the invention of media," Rushkoff said, referring … Continue reading End of 2012 mega blow-out post
In medias res: Semiology of Batman, economics of attention, hypodermic needles, magic bullets and more
So I've decided to headline these posts with interesting (to me) media-related content from around the web "In medias res". Not very original, I know, but "in the middle of things" seems appropriate. I came across the semiotics-centric site Semionaut via this post: "Semiotics and non-verbal communication". It looks to have a practitioner-oriented angle but … Continue reading In medias res: Semiology of Batman, economics of attention, hypodermic needles, magic bullets and more